diff --git a/packaging/OBS/make-package.sh b/packaging/OBS/make-package.sh
index ff85a0e26..bbcf1725f 100644
--- a/packaging/OBS/make-package.sh
+++ b/packaging/OBS/make-package.sh
@@ -20,7 +20,7 @@ git submodule init
 git submodule update
 cd -
 
-GITVERSION=$(cd subsurface ; git describe --abbrev=12 | sed -e 's/-g.*$// ; s/^v//')
+GITVERSION=$(cd subsurface ; git describe --match "v[0-9]*" --abbrev=12 | sed -e 's/-g.*$// ; s/^v//')
 GITREVISION=$(echo $GITVERSION | sed -e 's/.*-// ; s/.*\..*//')
 VERSION=$(echo $GITVERSION | sed -e 's/-/./')
 GITDATE=$(cd subsurface ; git log -1 --format="%at" | xargs -I{} date -d @{} +%Y-%m-%d)
diff --git a/packaging/android/qmake-build.sh b/packaging/android/qmake-build.sh
index c471a467d..7bd97b8df 100755
--- a/packaging/android/qmake-build.sh
+++ b/packaging/android/qmake-build.sh
@@ -84,7 +84,7 @@ mkdir -p "$BUILDROOT"/subsurface-mobile-build
 pushd "$BUILDROOT"/subsurface-mobile-build
 
 # set up the Subsurface versions by hand
-GITVERSION=$(cd "$SUBSURFACE_SOURCE" ; git describe --abbrev=12)
+GITVERSION=$(cd "$SUBSURFACE_SOURCE" ; git describe --match "v[0-9]*" --abbrev=12)
 CANONICALVERSION=$(echo "$GITVERSION" | sed -e 's/-g.*$// ; s/^v//' | sed -e 's/-/./')
 MOBILEVERSION=$(grep MOBILE "$SUBSURFACE_SOURCE"/cmake/Modules/version.cmake | cut -d\" -f 2)
 echo "#define GIT_VERSION_STRING \"$GITVERSION\"" > ssrf-version.h
diff --git a/packaging/copr/make-package.sh b/packaging/copr/make-package.sh
index a270f73f5..ec77954e2 100644
--- a/packaging/copr/make-package.sh
+++ b/packaging/copr/make-package.sh
@@ -27,7 +27,7 @@ git submodule init
 git submodule update
 cd -
 
-GITVERSION=$(cd subsurface ; git describe --abbrev=12 | sed -e 's/-g.*$// ; s/^v//')
+GITVERSION=$(cd subsurface ; git describe --match "v[0-9]*" --abbrev=12 | sed -e 's/-g.*$// ; s/^v//')
 GITREVISION=$(echo $GITVERSION | sed -e 's/.*-// ; s/.*\..*//')
 VERSION=$(echo $GITVERSION | sed -e 's/-/./')
 GITDATE=$(cd subsurface ; git log -1 --format="%at" | xargs -I{} date -d @{} +%Y-%m-%d)
diff --git a/packaging/ios/build.sh b/packaging/ios/build.sh
index 7b3374d99..562b035c5 100755
--- a/packaging/ios/build.sh
+++ b/packaging/ios/build.sh
@@ -58,7 +58,7 @@ if [ -z $QT_VERSION ] ; then
 fi
 
 # set up the Subsurface versions by hand
-GITVERSION=$(cd "$SUBSURFACE_SOURCE" ; git describe --abbrev=12)
+GITVERSION=$(cd "$SUBSURFACE_SOURCE" ; git describe --match "v[0-9]*" --abbrev=12)
 CANONICALVERSION=$(echo $GITVERSION | sed -e 's/-g.*$// ; s/^v//' | sed -e 's/-/./')
 MOBILEVERSION=$(grep MOBILE "$SUBSURFACE_SOURCE"/cmake/Modules/version.cmake | cut -d\" -f 2)
 echo "#define GIT_VERSION_STRING \"$GITVERSION\"" > "$SUBSURFACE_SOURCE"/ssrf-version.h
diff --git a/packaging/ubuntu/make-package.sh b/packaging/ubuntu/make-package.sh
index 7fb61f71b..ada1740c3 100644
--- a/packaging/ubuntu/make-package.sh
+++ b/packaging/ubuntu/make-package.sh
@@ -21,7 +21,7 @@ git submodule init
 git submodule update
 cd -
 
-GITVERSION=$(cd subsurface ; git describe --abbrev=12 | sed -e 's/-g.*$// ; s/^v//')
+GITVERSION=$(cd subsurface ; git describe --match "v[0-9]*" --abbrev=12 | sed -e 's/-g.*$// ; s/^v//')
 GITREVISION=$(echo $GITVERSION | sed -e 's/.*-// ; s/.*\..*//')
 VERSION=$(echo $GITVERSION | sed -e 's/-/./')
 GITDATE=$(cd subsurface ; git log -1 --format="%at" | xargs -I{} date -d @{} +%Y-%m-%d)
diff --git a/scripts/add-version-to-appdata.sh b/scripts/add-version-to-appdata.sh
index 930db44ae..e4b03c73c 100755
--- a/scripts/add-version-to-appdata.sh
+++ b/scripts/add-version-to-appdata.sh
@@ -5,7 +5,7 @@
 # this will, however, fail for plain tar balls create via git archive
 
 SCRIPT_DIR="$( cd "${BASH_SOURCE%/*}" ; pwd )"
-VERSION=$(git describe --abbrev=12) || VERSION=$(cat "$SCRIPT_DIR"/../.gitversion)
+VERSION=$(git describe --match "v[0-9]*" --abbrev=12) || VERSION=$(cat "$SCRIPT_DIR"/../.gitversion)
 DATE=$(git log -1 --format="%ct" | xargs -I{} date -d @{} +%Y-%m-%d)
 if [ "$DATE" = "" ] ; then
 	DATE=$(cat "$SCRIPT_DIR"/../.gitdate)
diff --git a/scripts/android/before_install.sh b/scripts/android/before_install.sh
index 42a3bb1d1..ccd611fe7 100644
--- a/scripts/android/before_install.sh
+++ b/scripts/android/before_install.sh
@@ -4,7 +4,7 @@
 # Sorry Travis, fetching the whole thing and the tags as well...
 git fetch --unshallow
 git pull --tags
-git describe
+git describe --match "v[0-9]*"
 
 # setup build dir on the host, not inside of the container
 mkdir -p ../subsurface-mobile-build-docker-arm
diff --git a/scripts/get-version b/scripts/get-version
index a063efc9e..99758ade7 100755
--- a/scripts/get-version
+++ b/scripts/get-version
@@ -18,7 +18,7 @@ os=$1
 if [ $# -eq 2 ] && [ "$2" ]; then
 	v0=$2
 else
-	cmd="git describe --abbrev=12"
+	cmd="git describe --match "v[0-9]*" --abbrev=12"
 	v0=$($cmd) || v0=$(cat .gitversion) || croak "odd; command '$cmd' failed"
 fi
 
diff --git a/scripts/ios/before_install.sh b/scripts/ios/before_install.sh
index 44f3dabe3..ed0b7471b 100644
--- a/scripts/ios/before_install.sh
+++ b/scripts/ios/before_install.sh
@@ -14,7 +14,7 @@ unset -f popd
 # Sorry Travis, fetching the whole thing and the tags as well...
 git fetch --unshallow
 git pull --tags
-git describe
+git describe --match "v[0-9]*"
 
 git submodule init
 git submodule update --recursive
diff --git a/scripts/ios/travisbuild.sh b/scripts/ios/travisbuild.sh
index fd8513b29..1f7f5ca38 100644
--- a/scripts/ios/travisbuild.sh
+++ b/scripts/ios/travisbuild.sh
@@ -6,7 +6,7 @@ set -e
 # this gets executed by Travis when building for iOS
 # it gets started from inside the subsurface directory
 
-GITVERSION=$(git describe --abbrev=12 | sed -e 's/-g.*$// ; s/^v//')
+GITVERSION=$(git describe --match "v[0-9]*" --abbrev=12 | sed -e 's/-g.*$// ; s/^v//')
 VERSION=$(echo $GITVERSION | sed -e 's/-/./')
 
 echo "preparing dependencies for Subsurface-mobile ${VERSION} for iOS"
diff --git a/scripts/linux-trusty-qt512/before_install.sh b/scripts/linux-trusty-qt512/before_install.sh
index cd119c774..f9ae24485 100644
--- a/scripts/linux-trusty-qt512/before_install.sh
+++ b/scripts/linux-trusty-qt512/before_install.sh
@@ -13,7 +13,7 @@ TRAVIS_BUILD_DIR=${TRAVIS_BUILD_DIR:-$PWD}
 git fetch --unshallow || true # if running locally, unshallow could fail
 git pull --tags
 git submodule init
-git describe
+git describe --match "v[0-9]*"
 
 # make sure we have libdivecomputer
 echo "Get libdivecomputer"
diff --git a/scripts/linux/before_install.sh b/scripts/linux/before_install.sh
index f38ea4649..2b7c1217f 100644
--- a/scripts/linux/before_install.sh
+++ b/scripts/linux/before_install.sh
@@ -12,7 +12,7 @@ set -x
 # Sorry Travis, fetching the whole thing and the tags as well...
 git fetch --unshallow
 git pull --tags
-git describe
+git describe --match "v[0-9]*"
 
 export QT_ROOT=$PWD/Qt/5.9.3
 rm -rf Qt
diff --git a/scripts/linux2/before_install.sh b/scripts/linux2/before_install.sh
index 2e82e1156..d64c331be 100644
--- a/scripts/linux2/before_install.sh
+++ b/scripts/linux2/before_install.sh
@@ -16,7 +16,7 @@ export CXX=g++-5
 # Sorry Travis, fetching the whole thing and the tags as well...
 git fetch --unshallow
 git pull --tags
-git describe
+git describe --match "v[0-9]*"
 
 . /opt/qt510/bin/qt510-env.sh
 export QT_ROOT=/opt/qt510
diff --git a/scripts/mac/before_install.sh b/scripts/mac/before_install.sh
index 4bfd039ff..aa2ed5658 100644
--- a/scripts/mac/before_install.sh
+++ b/scripts/mac/before_install.sh
@@ -13,7 +13,7 @@ unset -f popd
 # Sorry Travis, fetching the whole thing and the tags as well...
 git fetch --unshallow
 git pull --tags
-git describe
+git describe --match "v[0-9]*"
 
 # prep things so we can build for Mac
 # we have a custom built Qt some gives us just what we need, including QtWebKit
diff --git a/scripts/qt55/before_install.sh b/scripts/qt55/before_install.sh
index 5859da915..e066427d2 100644
--- a/scripts/qt55/before_install.sh
+++ b/scripts/qt55/before_install.sh
@@ -4,7 +4,7 @@
 # Sorry Travis, fetching the whole thing and the tags as well...
 git fetch --unshallow
 git pull --tags
-git describe
+git describe --match "v[0-9]*"
 
 # Ugly, but keeps it running during the build
 docker run -v $PWD:/workspace/subsurface --name=builder -w /workspace -d ubuntu:16.04 /bin/sleep 60m
diff --git a/scripts/qt56/before_install.sh b/scripts/qt56/before_install.sh
index 88714a410..b1329eaba 100644
--- a/scripts/qt56/before_install.sh
+++ b/scripts/qt56/before_install.sh
@@ -4,7 +4,7 @@
 # Sorry Travis, fetching the whole thing and the tags as well...
 git fetch --unshallow
 git pull --tags
-git describe
+git describe --match "v[0-9]*"
 
 # Ugly, but keeps it running during the build
 docker run -v $PWD:/workspace/subsurface --name=builder -w /workspace -d opensuse:42.3 /bin/sleep 60m
diff --git a/scripts/qt57/before_install.sh b/scripts/qt57/before_install.sh
index c064dad6a..9f1c99342 100644
--- a/scripts/qt57/before_install.sh
+++ b/scripts/qt57/before_install.sh
@@ -4,7 +4,7 @@
 # Sorry Travis, fetching the whole thing and the tags as well...
 git fetch --unshallow
 git pull --tags
-git describe
+git describe --match "v[0-9]*"
 
 # Ugly, but keeps it running during the build
 docker run -v $PWD:/workspace/subsurface --name=builder -w /workspace -d fedora:26 /bin/sleep 60m
diff --git a/scripts/qt59/before_install.sh b/scripts/qt59/before_install.sh
index 83a8ba441..82f49f289 100644
--- a/scripts/qt59/before_install.sh
+++ b/scripts/qt59/before_install.sh
@@ -4,7 +4,7 @@
 # Sorry Travis, fetching the whole thing and the tags as well...
 git fetch --unshallow
 git pull --tags
-git describe
+git describe --match "v[0-9]*"
 
 # Ugly, but keeps it running during the build
 docker run -v $PWD:/workspace/subsurface --name=builder -w /workspace -d fedora:27 /bin/sleep 60m
diff --git a/scripts/windows-container/before_install.sh b/scripts/windows-container/before_install.sh
index 5635cb450..69bc6b4f3 100644
--- a/scripts/windows-container/before_install.sh
+++ b/scripts/windows-container/before_install.sh
@@ -10,7 +10,7 @@ TRAVIS_BUILD_DIR=${TRAVIS_BUILD_DIR:-$PWD}
 git fetch --unshallow || true # if running locally, unshallow could fail
 git pull --tags
 git submodule init
-git describe
+git describe --match "v[0-9]*"
 
 # make sure we have libdivecomputer
 echo "Get libdivecomputer"
diff --git a/scripts/windows/before_install.sh b/scripts/windows/before_install.sh
index e0acf6bf5..9f6140659 100644
--- a/scripts/windows/before_install.sh
+++ b/scripts/windows/before_install.sh
@@ -6,7 +6,7 @@ set -x
 # Sorry Travis, fetching the whole thing and the tags as well...
 git fetch --unshallow
 git pull --tags
-git describe
+git describe --match "v[0-9]*"
 
 # grab our own custom MXE environment
 pushd ${TRAVIS_BUILD_DIR}/..